Lincoln Journal Star Lincoln, Nebraska Friday, March 31, 1972 - Page 3
Belgrade Won't Set Up Chess Match
Belgrade, Yugoslavia (AP) — The Belgrade organizers of the Spassky-Fischer world chess match announced Friday they are dropping plans to organize the match in the scheduled period in this city.
The contract between world champion Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union and American challenger Bobby Fischer was set to start June 22. The second half of the 24-game match was to be played in Reykjavik, Iceland, under a compromise agreement reached in Amsterdam by the International Chess Federation (FIDE) and the two players.
The Belgrade decision was expected after the organizers received no pledge from the world federation that it would honor the Amsterdam agreement. Belgrade chess officials set a March 31 deadline for a reply.
On Thursday Fischer dismissed E.B. Edmondson, head of the U.S. Chess Federation, as his financial negotiator for the match and Edmondson said Fischer planned to conduct his own bargaining.
A Belgrade newspaper reported that Fischer had rejected a settlement Edmondson reached in Amsterdam for the players' share of the match. The agreement reportedly would have given the winner 72% of the $138,000 purse, with the rest going to the loser.
The Belgrade and Reykjavik organizers of the match turned down Fischer's requests for a change in financial conditions of the Amsterdam pact earlier in March. He had asked that all money left over after the cost of the match was covered should be split between him and Spassky. The organizers said they bore a financial risk and should have the right to profit.
In informing the world federation of their decision not to organize the match in June, the Belgrade group said in an telegram: “No Guarantee”
“Since Grandmaster Fischer had refused to play the match in Belgrade … also denying Edmondson the right to represent him, it is our appraisal that the agreement offers no guarantee to the organizers that the match will actually take place in the period agreed upon.”
The Belgrade paper had also claimed Thursday that Edmondson told an editor Fischer may have change his mind about meeting Spassky for the match. Edmondson denied the report.
The telegram from the Belgrade organizers said that, because of the lack of the guarantee, “we are not in the position to bear any further risk about organizing the match.”
